Debates about societal effects of mass surveillance are rarely taking place. Seduced by some free services, we present the big data collectors with our social network, our shopping habbits and our personal interests. There is a general, unpleasant feeling when rushing through click-through-agreements, but that´s basically it. We witness China´s social credit system and some eastern European states moving towards a dark past, but are not afraid of such a shift being able to happen to our democratic governments. And if so – what should an innocent citizen like me be afraid of at all?

The selection HYPERPUBLIC puts works about public issues in a larger context. The shy camera, an interactive installation, broaches most prominently the issue of surveillance. Kuschmirz comments on unrestrained photo-narcissism within social media platforms, by uploading pictures of public trash, while the begging robot Baksheeshboy picks out public empathy as its central theme.

Shy Camera I + II
An interactive installation about the human need of being noticed: a surveillance camera, which is attached to the ceiling, turns away from anyone coming into its field of vision. It interrupts the video transmission to a nearby screen, if surrounded by people.
Shy Camera has been been presented for the first time in 2007, but premiered at Vergüenza, an exhibition curated by Ana Ara at La Casa Encendida, Madrid, 2013. | mixed electronics, Stuttgart/Cologne/Madrid, 2007/2013CCTV / INTERACTIVE INSTALLATION / SURVEILLANCE

Public TrashThe publication public trash shows 60 photographs, which were taken in urban areas around the world - such as Tokyo, Buenos Aires, Rome and Berlin - from 2009 to 2014.
The series of trash photography started as a response to the flow of uploaded imagery on Facebook. The book has been a part of the performance market day II, which took place during its release. | concept/photography, StrzeleckiBooks, 2009-2013LOCAL PECULIARITIES / PRIVATE RESIDUES / STREET GARBAGE

BaksheeshBoyThe interactive, begging robot BaksheeshBoy reacts through hidden cameras with pedestrians, asks them via loudspeakers for a donation and thanks by playing back snippets of songs by Elvis Presley. It is the result of a collaboration of Moritz Schmidt and Gregor Kuschmirz and got for first in touch with the public at "Creative Weekend" in Madrid. | Mixed Media, Stuttgart/Madrid, 2009PUBLIC SPACE / SOCIAL MACHINES / BEGGING

Y-junctionY-junction would be a monumental kinetic sculpture for public places. Visitors, who walk inside of one of its tubes, would turn the sculpture verbatim upside down – a play about the power of gravity and the fascination of changing perspectives.
Three tetragonal tubes bow upwards with an angle of 120° between each other. Each tube is a 120°-segment of a circle. Y-junction moves accordingly to the movement of one or several visitors inside of it. The sculpture would be balanced in any possible position and would move within a Y-shaped floorspace. | concept, Treviso/Stuttgart, 2007CHANGE IN PERSPECTIVES / INTERACTIVE SCULPTURE / PUBLIC SPACE